Five men have been arrested in Clacton after police searched five addresses in the town.

Essex Police searched three addresses in Hayes Road, Marine Parade East and Battisford Drive and two homes in Church Road during the morning of Thursday, June 4.

Five men remained in custody on Thursday afternoon on suspicion of possession with intent to supply class A drugs.

It follows an operation led by Op Raptor North officers, who detect and disrupt county lines.

Officers also seized a large amount of drugs along with scales and other paraphernalia.

Chief Superintendent Andrew Mariner said: “These warrants were executed as part of an operation to tackle county lines coming into Clacton from London.

“Our operations today were successful and follows proactive policing and community concerns.

“I would like to thank officers from Clacton’s Community Policing Team who assisted with the warrants.

“These arrests send a clear message to anyone travelling into our communities to deal drugs – we have operations in place to investigate you, to locate you and to arrest you.

“We do not tolerate drug dealing in our towns and we’d happily come through your front doors to bring you to justice.”